The First Part Last by Angela Johnson

• ISBN: 978-0689849237
• Plot summary: At 16 years old, Bobby is completely in love with his girlfriend Nia, but he never expected to be a dad so young. After getting Nia pregnant and grieving their quickly disappearing youth, the couple decides that their baby will go up for adoption upon being born and hopefully will be whisked away by a loving family who can provide so much more. Images of Bobby caring for baby Feather are interspersed with moments spent with Nia: the days before she got pregnant when they laughed and hung out with their friends; the day they told her parents when no one could talk after the news was vocalized, just cry; the day the doctors said Nia must rest because her blood pressure was skyrocketing. In the end as Bobby struggles through the night with Feather and goes to high school bleary eyed the next day, he wonders how he could bear the weight better though he could never give up his beautiful, innocent daughter.
• Critical evaluation: The novel opens with Bobby cradling his daughter in the early morning hours. She never wants to be away from her daddy. Bobby runs through the scenario again and again--he's young, he should be out with his boys and sleeping for the next day of school, but at the same time, he would never trade the previous moments of quiet he shares with his baby daughter feather. Bobby is so conflicted over the course of his short life's events, and Johnson does an excellent job of conveying to the reader how Bobby is at once both grateful and utterly lost. He wasn't supposed to have a daughter--she was supposed to be adopted by a well off couple who could provide better for Feather, but when Nia falls into a coma during childbirth, Feather is all he has left. His feelings of despair and elation are the kinds of emotions any young adult can relate to.
• Reader's annotation: Bobby and Nia were just a couple of kids... Then they got one of their own.
• About the author: Angela Johnson is a poet and author of children's book. For this novel, she won the Michael L. Printz Award for Excellence in Young Adult Literature.
• Genre: Fiction
• Curriculum ties, if any: None
• Booktalking ideas:
• Bobby decided to raise Feather himself. What are the challenges that lay ahead of him?
• Reading level/interest age: 15+
• Challenge issues: Sexuality
• Why was this item included? The item won the Coretta Scott King award.